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Sampoong Department Store collapse

Date Thursday, June 29, 1995

Time 5:57 PM KST

Location Seoul, South Korea

Casualties

502 dead

937 injured

The Sampoong Department Store (삼풍백화점; 三豊百貨店) collapse was a structural failure that

occurred on June 29, 1995 in theSeocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea. The collapse is the largest

peacetime disaster in South Korean history – 502 people died and 937 were injured.

Contents

  [hide] 

1   Building overview

2   Collapse

3   Aftermath

o 3.1   Rescue and recovery

o 3.2   Investigation

o 3.3   Trial

o 3.4   General reaction and nationwide building review

o 3.5   Notable survivors

o 3.6   The site today

4   Popular culture

5   See also

6   References

7   External links

[edit]Building overview

The Sampoong Group  began construction of the Sampoong Department Store in 1987 over a tract of

land previously used as a landfill. Originally designed as a residential apartment with four floors, it was

changed to a large department store during its construction by Lee Joon, the future chairman of the

building. This involved cutting away a number of support columns in order to install escalators.[1] When

the original contractors refused to carry out these changes, Lee ignored and fired them and hired his own

building company for the construction.

The building was completed in late 1989, and the Sampoong Department Store opened to the public on

July 7, 1990, attracting an estimated 40,000 people per day during the building's five years of existence.

The store consisted of north and south wings, connected by an atrium.

Later on, a fifth floor was added, which was first planned to be a skating rink to comply with zoning

regulations that prevented the whole building from being used as a department store. Lee changed the

original plan for the fifth floor to include eight restaurants instead. When a construction company tasked

to complete the extension advised that the structure would not support another floor, they were fired, and

another company was hired to complete the project. The restaurant floor also had a

heated concrete base with hot water pipes going through it, as patrons sit on the floor of traditional

Korean restaurants, which added a large extra load due to the increase in thickness of the concrete slab.

In addition, the building's air conditioning unit was installed on the roof, creating a load of four times the

design limit. Two years before the collapse, the air conditioning units were moved across the delicate

roof, which is where the cracking started. The units were moved over the column 5E from which the most

visible cracks in the floor of the fifth level were seen before the collapse.

[edit]Collapse

In April 1995, cracks began to appear in the ceiling of the south wing's fifth floor. During this period, the

only response by Lee and his management staff involved moving merchandise and stores from the top

floor to the basement.

On the morning of June 29, the number of cracks in the area increased dramatically, prompting

managers to close the top floor and shut the air conditioning off. The store management failed to shut the

building down or issue formal evacuation orders, as the number of customers in the building was

unusually high, and they did not want to lose the day's revenue. However, the executives themselves left

the premises as a precaution.

Civil engineering experts were invited to inspect the structure, with a cursory check revealing that the

building was at risk of collapse; the National Geographic documentary seriesSeconds From

Disaster indicates that the facility's manager was examining the slab in one of the restaurants on the fifth

floor, eight hours before the collapse, when, unknowingly, vibration from air conditioning was radiating

through the cracks in the concrete columns and the floor opened up.

Five hours before the collapse, the first of several loud bangs was heard emanating from the top floors,

as the vibration of the air conditioning caused the cracks in the slabs to widen further. Amid customer

reports of vibration, the air conditioning was turned off, but the cracks in the floors had already grown to

10 cm.

At about 5:00 p.m. Korea Standard Time (UTC+9:00), the fifth floor ceiling began to sink, resulting in

store workers blocking customer access to the fifth floor. According to Seconds From Disaster, the store

was packed with shoppers 57 minutes before the collapse, but the owner did not close the store or carry

out repairs at that time. When the building started to produce cracking sounds at about 5:50 p.m.,

workers began to sound alarms and evacuate the building, but by then it was too late.

Around 5:57 p.m., the roof gave way, and the air conditioning unit crashed through into the already-

overloaded fifth floor.[2] The main columns, weakened to allow the insertion of the escalators, collapsed in

turn, and the building's south wing pancaked into the basement. Within 20 seconds, all of the building's

columns in the south wing gave way, trapping more than 1,500 people and killing 502.

The disaster resulted in about ₩270 billion (approximately US$216 million) worth of property damage.

[edit]Aftermath

[edit]Rescue and recovery

Rescue crews were on the scene within minutes of the disaster, with cranes and other heavy equipment

being brought in the next day. However, authorities announced that they would call off the rescue, due to

the danger that the unstable remains of the store could come down, and many of the rescuers would be

at risk. Massive protests, especially from friends and relatives of those still missing, compelled officials to

continue looking for survivors, with the remains of the store being steadied by guide cables. After nearly

a week, the focus was on removing the debris, though construction crews were careful to check for

victims.

Two days after the collapse, some officials said that anybody who was still in the building must have

already died; therefore, further efforts would be made only towards "recovery" and not "rescue".[citation

needed] This conflicts with other people's[who?] experience that people can survive much longer.[citation

needed] Despite the sweltering heat, those who were not rescued in the first few days were able to avoid

dehydration by drinking rainwater. The last to be rescued, 19-year-old Park Seung Hyun (박승현; 朴昇

賢), was pulled from the wreckage 17 days after the collapse with a few scratches. She said that she

heard the sounds of other survivors drowning in the fire department's deflation[clarification needed] water.

[edit]Investigation

Shortly after the collapse, leaking gas was suspected as the probable cause because two gas explosions

had occurred elsewhere in the city that year. However, fires amid the rubble were from burning

automotive gasoline coming from crushed cars parked in the underground garage[citation needed], whereas a

gas explosion would have been a massive inferno[by whom?] . In addition, it was widely feared[who?] that there

had been a terrorist attack, with North Korea as the prime suspect. However, the fact the building

collapsed downward instead of horizontally ruled out this possibility according to U.S. and South Korean

experts.[by whom?]

The investigation committee and effort was headed by Professor Lan Chung of Dankook

University's engineering school.

Initially, it was believed the building's poorly-laid foundation, and the fact it was built on unstable ground,

led to the failure. Investigation of the rubble revealed that a substandard concrete mix of cement and sea

water and poorly reinforced concrete was used for the ceilings and walls.

Further investigation revealed the building was built with incorrect application of a technique called "flat

slab construction". Reinforced concrete buildings are often built using columns and beams, with the floor

slab supported over the full length of the beams. "Flat slab construction" does not use beams, but

supports the floor slab directly on the columns. The area of floor around the columns must be reinforced

in order to carry the load; even then, if the columns are too narrow, they can punch through the slab.

However, plans of the Sampoong Department Store building showed the concrete columns were only

60 cm in diameter, below the required 80 cm. Worse still, the number of steel reinforcing bars embedded

into the concrete was 8, not the required 16, giving the building only half its needed strength. Steel

reinforcements intended to strengthen the concrete floor were placed 10 cm from the top instead of 5 cm,

decreasing the structure's strength by about another 20%.

Ironically, one of the changes that contributed to the collapse was the installation of a safety feature. Fire

shields were installed around all escalators to prevent the spread of fire from floor to floor, but in order to

install them, the builders cut into the support columns, reducing their diameter further. The columns were

no longer adequate to support the weight, eventually puncturing the ceiling.

These factors, along with the addition of a fifth floor including restaurants and heavy restaurant

equipment, collectively contributed to the building's eventual failure. Although the original building design

would have been more than twice as strong as needed to remain erect, the flawed structure managed to

stand for five years.

Later, investigators found the direct cause of the collapse, known as the "trigger" or tipping point, in the

building's history. It was revealed that the building's three rooftop air-conditioning units had been moved

in 1993 due to noise complaints from neighbours on the east side of the building. The building's

managers admitted noticing cracks on the roof during the move, but instead of lifting them with a crane,

the units were put on rollers and dragged across the roof, further destabilizing the surface due to each

unit's immense weight. Cracks formed in the roof slabs and the main support columns were forced

downward; column 5E took a direct hit, forming cracks in the position connected to the fifth-floor

restaurants.

Another issue attributed to the air conditioning units came from survivor accounts of the building

vibrating. Over the course of two years, each time the air conditioners were switched on, vibrations

radiated through the cracks, reaching the supporting columns and widening the cracks. On the day of the

tragedy, although the units were shut off, it was too late; the structure had suffered irreversible damage,

and the fifth floor slab around column 5E finally gave way.

[edit]Trial

Lee Joon was charged with criminal negligence and received a prison sentence of 10.5 years.

[3] However, Joon's sentence was reduced to seven years on appeal in April 1996. Joon died of health

complications on October 4, 2003, a few days after being discharged, relating to heart failure, high blood

pressure and diabetes.

His son, Lee Han-Sang, the store's president, who is now working for religious causes in Mongolia, faced

seven years for accidental homicide and corruption.[4] City officials Lee Chung-Woo and Hwang Chol-

Min, in charge of overseeing the construction of the building, were also found to have been bribed into

concealing the illegal changes and poor construction. As a result, the participating officials, including a

former chief administrator of the Seocho-gu district, were also jailed. Other parties sentenced included a

number of Sampoong Department Store executives and the company responsible for completing the

building.

The settlement involved 3,293 cases, totaling 375.8 billion Won (close to $350 million USD). The

former Chaebol Lee family was stripped of all of their possessions and assets to cover the costs.[citation

needed]

[edit]General reaction and nationwide building review

The initial reaction was enormous public outrage that led to months of demonstration on the streets. The

disaster later led to skepticism and fears regarding safety standards on other engineering projects

undertaken as South Korea experienced an economic boom during the 1980s and 1990s, and resulted in

a review of South Korean safety regulations; the incident also revealed the level of corruption among city

officials, who were willing to accept payoffs with little regard for public safety.

[edit]Notable survivors

Choe Myeong Seok 최명석 (20· male), rescued after 11 days

Yoo Ji Hwan 유지환 (18· female), rescued after 13 days

Park Seung Hyun 박승현 (19· female), rescued after 17 days[5]

[edit]The site today

The former location of the department stores now has luxury apartments.

[edit]Popular culture

Park Chan-Wook  depicted the greed capitalizing on the tragedy in his 1999 short film Judgement.

The Sampoong Department Store collapse was depicted in the 2006 film, Traces of Love.

It was also portrayed in a Blueprint for Disaster episode, as well as a Seconds from

Disaster episode.

The series finale of the SBS TV series Giant references the Sampoong Department Store collapse.[6]

[edit]See also

South Korea portal

Disasters portal

1990s portal

Seongsu Bridge

[edit]References

1. ̂  "China's weapons of mass construction". The News From Wabu-eup. July 2, 2009. Retrieved 29 March 2012.

2. ̂  Seconds From Disaster indicates that the fifth floor slab and roof were the first to collapse, causing the air

conditioning units to fall through the structure

3. ̂  "Korean store owner, son sentenced for role in collapse". CNN. 27 December 1995. Retrieved 9 January 2012.

4. ̂  "Korean store owner, son sentenced for role in collapse". CNN.com. December 27, 1995. Retrieved 2006-06-

01.

5. ̂  Ilbo, Dong-A (June 25, 2005). " 삼풍백화점 참사 10 년 … 당시 생존자 최명석씨 (Sampoong Department Store

disaster, 10 years later - survivors)" (in Korean). Naver. Retrieved 25 December 2011.

6. ̂  "[REVIEW SBS series "Giant""]. hancinema.net. Retrieved 9 December 2010.

Seconds From Disaster : "Superstore Collapse" (September 20, 2006; Season 3, Episode 11).

[edit]External links

The Korea Times: The Dawn of Modern Korea - Collapse of Sampoong Department Store

A National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) article on the Sampoong Disaster